The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-04-23
ELEPHANT MYTHS.


naturalists was early drawn to the tusks
and bones of fossil elephants, which are
so abundant in the soil of Europe, from
which they constructed vast giants.
Thus we have the bones of Orestes dug
up at Tegea by the Spartans, the skele-
ton of Anteus in Mauritania, that of
Ajax in Asia Minor, giant forty-six
cubits high found in Crete, and host
of others. Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny,
and Philostratus give much space to
descriptions of these monsters. Even
the Christian fathers did not disdain to
make use of these tales. st. Angus
tine, in proof of the greater stature of
the Antediluvians, says 81 myself,
along with some others, saw on the
shore at Utica a mans molar tooth of
such size that, if it were cut down
into teeth such as we have, hundred,
1 fancy, could have been made out
of it."
Medieval literature abounds in giants.
A monstrous one was found in England
in I'LL /; the bones of Polyphemus were
dug up in Sicily, and from time to time
such remains were discovered all over
Europe, and as the finders always knew
the particular individual to whom the
bones belonged, many duly labelled
were hung up in the churches. Thus
an elephants shoulder-blade did duty
for st. Christopher ina Venetian church,
and the bones of Teutobocchus, king of
the Teutons (now known to be masto-
don's skeleton), were, according to Ma
zuya, found in brick tomb bearing the
inscription, ''Teutobocchus rex" Fe-
lix Plater's famous giant, which still
figures in the arms of Lucerne, arose
from some elephant remains found in
1877. A large elephants tooth was sent
from Constantinople to Vienna and Of
fered to the emperor for two thousand
thalers. The discoverers pretended to
have found it in subterranean cham
her at Jerusalem which bore the Chal-
dean inscription 'Here lies the giant
Og." But this was too great strain
on the faith of very credulous age,
and the emperor declined to purchase
because, as Lambecius quantity says:
1.-THE whole thing looked very like an
imposition"
Don Quixote supported his chivalrous
belief with similar evidence. "In the
island of Sicily" he says, There have
been found long bones, and shoulder
bones SO huge that their size manifests
their owners to have been giants, and
as big as great towers; for this truth
geometry sets beyond doubt" But the
catalogue of medieval giants would fill
volume, and very considerable lit
erature on ''gigantology" dates from
that time. The learned, however, did
not always accept these myths. One
favorite way of escaping the difficulty
was to declare fossil bones and teeth to
be mere sports of nature generated in
the earth by the "tumultuouS move
ments of terrestrial exhalations," as
was held by the famous anatomist of
Padua, Falloppio Q55O), who even
went so far as to consider the remains
of Roman art mere natural impressions
stamped on the soil. Father Kircher
Q6S0) adopts the same notion, and rid
icules the idea of such monstrous giants,
adding that he had himself seen these
teeth in all stages of manufacture.
Swift satirizes this school, whose pro-
fessors ''haVe invented this wonderful
solution of all difficulties to the
unspeakable advancement of human
knowledge. ."-PrOf. w. B. Scott, in
Scribner'S Magazine tor ApriI.